I decided to switch from my normal Antiperspirant & Deodorant brand (Right Guard) to something more natural and without aluminum (Tom’s of Maine). I was horribly let down. Tom’s deodorant is a joke compared to Right Guard. And I guess if no aluminum is your thing that you might be thinking, “Of course it isn’t as strong as Right Guard because it isn’t harmful like Right Guard”. You might be right, I have no idea if my pits are absorbing the aluminum and my antiperspirant is slowly killing me. But I do know that Right Guard keeps me dry and smelling fresh. Tom’s, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired.

The second major shocker is Dale’s death. I have a friend that said “Am I the only one who is glad that whiner is gone?” Dale was a man of principle, of morals, and hope. In the beginning, he was hope that things could get better, that good would win and things could get back to normal. When everyone, even Dale, realized that this wasn’t possible, he was still the voice of hope. Even in a chaotic world of violence and undeath, he wanted to remain civilized. He wanted order, wanted to maintain societal norms so that we wouldn’t devolve into lawless miscreants, thus making the world unsavable. To Dale, there was no grey. Nothing was morally ambiguous. There was right and there was wrong and circumstances didn’t dictate his moral compass. To Dale, killing someone was wrong before the Zombie Apocalypse and it is just as wrong now. Everyone else seems to ascribe by different rules. What was right before doesn’t necessarily apply now. The world has changed and therefore so has the foundations of morality. Nothing represents “the new world doesn’t have room for the laws of the old world” better than Dale’s death. Things aren’t the same. There is no hope of ever going back to the way things were. A new social order is established.

The wife and I made the quick trip to North Carolina for a little skiing. The Cataloochee Ski Area is one of the closest mountains to us so we decided to make a day trip to see if it was any good.

01/20/12

The first major shocker of Season 2 was that the barn was full of zombies, or Walkers, as the group calls them. This is a major event which has widespread repercussions and actually changes the dynamics of the group. At this point, Hershel believes that there is hope for the restless dead. He essentially believes that the Walking Dead are just sick somehow; he thinks they can be cured. And he knows some of them; some are even family. Hershel has hope for the zombies, since he still sees them as human he doesn’t want to kill them, in fact, he wants to help them at all cost.

There is a little bit of discord within the group as to how to handle the barn full of zombies. Dale tries to hide the guns from Shane but Shane finds and confronts Dale. Shane seems to be in a miserable state and might actually want to die at this point. He is definitely single minded. Shane finally, with the entire group at his side, busts open the barn and everyone starts killing the zombos. This marks a turning point for Hershel, who finally realizes that zombos aren’t people any more and there is no help for them. Hershel loses his faith and emotionally goes to a dark place. Physically, he goes to a bar to drink himself into oblivion but Shane and Glenn find him, only to be also be found by two other dudes. Here we see that Rick, when confronted and tested, will rise to the challenge. He quickly kills the other two peeps with the rationale that they were a danger to the farm and the people there. So we see that Rick can and will take a human life, just like Shane, if needed. This puts the whole Rick vs. Shane debate to rest.

This is my first attempt at creating a wound from scratch. I watched fumsmusings channel and she has a lot of great tutorials. For my first attempt I don’t think it was all that bad, especially the second try where I pulled up some of the “skin” to make the bite look more real, like some of my flesh had been removed during the attack.

Joe Manganiello talks during the 2011 True Blood panel at DragonCon about being bullied as a child and crying because of it. Apparently even big guys get picked on. Why can’t we all just get along?

What is your accidental gay experience? Did you have an innocent night out with your buddies and somehow got gayed? Does it make you gay if you liked it but you both promised never to tell? Being gayed can cause embarrassment for all parties involved. But speaking of parties, witnessing lewd gay acts doesn’t have to be gross. In fact, most college age chicks can be encouraged to explore their same sex desires and when that happens, it is beautiful. Go Boobs!

Our own private show! Live at Dragon*Con 2010: As Voltaire walked by me on the way to the stage I yelled “The Man Upstairs” and he was nice enough to come over and play a few chords. Voltaire is always in good form and definitely pleases the crowd.